So, a potentially crazy idea… A conversation at Costume College got me thinking about the possibility of writing a book on 18th century hairstyling (and makeup?) — using modern techniques to achieve a historically accurate look, working with your own hair, adding false hair, and wigs. Now, this could be a lot of work, so it wouldn’t really be worth the time unless people would buy it.
Here’s what I picture:
- Something along the line of Lauren Rennells’ fabulous book on vintage hairstyling
- Start with some history, include lots of pictures and source material (if possible? gotta look into that whole public domain images thing)
- Go over some basic your-hair styling techniques, like ways to curl your hair, tease, etc.
- Go over some semi-advanced wig/false hair styling techniques, like different ways to curl/straighten synthetic hair, ways to create volume, ways to create rolls, how to attach wigs/false hair to your head, how to match colors, how to not look like you’re wearing a Wig, how to adapt a wig for different hairlines, etc.
- Step by step instructions that walk you through hairstyle for different eras — I picture 1-2 styles for each decade, with some info on variations
- Hairstyles would be those worn in France and England (there’s some differences b/t the two, and lots of similarities) — the English stuff could be extrapolated to those doing American
- Possibly 1-2 styles that are appropriate for lower/middle classes, but most would be upper class styles — I would talk about ways to tone things down if you’re doing middle class
- Mostly I’m picturing this focusing on women, but it could also talk about men’s styles
- Possibly including some brief info on creating an 18th c. makeup look using modern products
So, crazy idea or good one? I’ve created a survey that I’d love if you would fill out so I can try to figure out 1) if there’s a market for such a thing, and 2) what specifics people would want. Please feel free to share any thoughts in the survey or by commenting here — I wonder if people are concerned about geography, class, etc…. And my forte is NOT “here’s how this recipe from this 1764 beauty manual makes up,” so again, we’d be talking modern/theatrical techniques — would that work for you?
Please feel free to forward this survey around! The more input I get, the clearer an idea I’ll have as to whether or not this is a viable idea.
Here’s the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KDVJZY7
And, in case you aren’t a regular reader of this blog, here’s some examples of hairstyles and wigs that I’ve done:
